Quick-action relay and system tor operating same



E. P. JESSOP.

QUICK ACTION RELAY AND SYSTEM FOR OPERATING SAME.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 10 WW.

1 ,323,286. Patented Dec; 2,1919.

8 SHEETSSHEET I.

E. P. JESSOP.

QUICK ACTION RELAY AND SYSTEM FOR OPERATING SAME.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 10. I911.

Patented Dec. 2,1919.

3 SHEETS-$HEET 2 W R W 5 nuewtoz E. P. JESSOP.

QUICK ACTION RELAY AND SYSTEM FOR OPERATING SAME.

APPLICATION FILED APR,10. [9|].

1,323,286., Patented 1300.2,1919.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

UNITED sTArns TNT OFFIC EARL P. JESSOP, OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY, ASSIGNOB TO J-S DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

QUIOK-AGTION RELAY AND SYSTEM FOR OIPERATING SAME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 10, 1917. Serial No. 160,996.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EAR P. knew, a citizen of the United States, and a commander in the U. S. Navy, stationed at the navy yard, Brooklyn,New York, have invented certain new and useful Improve pneumatic signal systems for controllingthe Y movements of cars or trains. Toward the attainment of this object my invention contemplates an improved system which does not require the collection of current 'from 'an outside rail. One of the objects of my in-' vention is to provide an improved arrangement of parts which will be dependable under all conditions to be met with inactual service. Another object is to provide an improved quick action relay for a system of this character. In the application of myinvention to railroads, a maximum degree of reliability is obtained by limiting the use of electric apparatus to the selective or lineclear function and by employing only mechanical parts for operating the stopping mechanism. Other and further objects will appear in the specification and be pointed out in the appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings which show the preferred embodiment of my invention.

In the drawings: v

Figure 1 is a wiring diagram illustrating an embodiment of my invention in its application to railway service;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section on an enlarged scale of certain of the elements shown in Fig. 1, parts being broken away and parts shown in elevation.

Fig. 3 is a track diagram;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the armature mechanism, the housing therefor being shown in section;

Fig. 5 is an end elevation of the same;

Fig. 6 shows a modified detail.

A clear understanding of my invention i bes had a d scription of he ame in its adaptation to a definite field of service such as a railway train control system shown on the drawings. In this embodiment, apparatus is provided for automatically setting air brakes, such apparatus including a lever which is suitably mounted to swing about a fulcrum on a locomotive, for ex- Patented Dec. 2, 19:19. I

ample, in the manner shown and described" in my Patent No. 936,905, dated October 12th, 1909. Said lever 1 is thus adapted to be operated by a ramp or tripping block (not shown) to impart a slight downward displacement to a plunger 2 which is connected to the lever 1- by a link 3. The

plunger 2 reciprocates in a valve housing 4 and is provided with an annular port 5 and an annular by-pass chamber 6. Surmounting the plunger 2 is a disk or piston 7 which reciprocates in a chamber 8 within the upper end of the'valve housing 4. Surmounting the piston 7 is a rod 9 which carries a bridge contact 10 which, under certain conditions to be presently referred to, is moved downwardly into position to close a gap between the contacts 11.

Referring now to Fig. 1, the contacts 11 are connected up in a circuit which includes a battery 12 connected by a lead 13 to one of the contacts 11, the other of said contacts 11 being connected by a wire 14 to one terminal of a primary coil 15 mounted on a core 16 with spaced poles 17. A wire 18 leads from the other terminal of winding 15 to one terminal of a field winding comprising coils I 19 and 20. Coil 20 is connected by a wire 21 to a contact 22 with which a movable-contact 23 normally contacts. A wire 2 1 serves to connect the contact 23 with'the battery 12, thus completing the primary energizing circuit of the winding 15 as well as the field windings 19 and 20. The contact 23 is in the present embodiment of my invention, carried by the relay plunger 23 operated by a solenoid 25. Solenoid is connected up in the following energizing circuit, namcly, battery 12,- wire 13, contacts 11, 10, 11, a wire 26 which is connected to a Wire. 27 leading to one terminal of the winding 25, a

30 is incontact with fixed contact 29, under conditions to be hereinafter explained, the plunger 23' is raised to bring the contact 23 against spaced contacts 32, 32, one of said contacts being connected by a short wire 33 with the wire 28, and the other of said contacts being connected by a Wire 34 with one terminal of a magnet winding 35. The other terminal of windin to wire 26. This operation completes an energizing circuit which includesbattery 12, wire 13, contacts 11, 10, 11, wire 26, winding 35, wire 34, contacts 32, 23, 32, wire 33, wire 28, contact 29, arm 30 and wire 31. As soon as contact 23 has closed upon contacts 32, 32, the winding 35 is energized by a more direct circuit including battery 12, Wire 13, contacts 11, 10, 11, wire 26, winding 35, wire 34, contacts 32, 23, and wire 24, thus prolonging the energization of coil 35 after the contact 30 has been drawn away from contact 29, so long as contacts 1110l1 remain closed. A secondary Winding 36 on the magnet core 16 is adapted to generate an electromotive force by reason of changes influx in core 16. Leading from terminal of the winding 36 is a wire 37 which is connected to one terminal of a coil Winding 38 which oscillates about an axis 39, but is normally held by a spring 40 in a position to maintain the contact 30 which oscillates therewith, in a position away from the contact 29. The other terminal of the winding 38 is connected by a wire 41 to the other terminal coil 36, thus completing a secondary circuit. A fixed core 42 is suitably disposed within the winding 38 to shorten and make uniform the lines of force existing between the poles energized by the field windings 19 and 20, and passing through core 42. An armature 43 is suitably mounted to be moved into and out of position to shorten the magnetic gap existing between the poles 17, 17 of the magnet which includes the primary coil 15 and secondary coil 36. Said armature 43 is, however, mounted at a fixed station in the travel of the locomotive so that when in proper position, poles 17, 17

are swept thereby, the flux resulting from the decreased reluctance of the'magnetic circuit, due to the presence therein of the armature 43, is suddenly broken, resulting in the generation of an electromotive force in the secondary coil 36.

Referring now to Fig. 2, a pipe 44 which preferably leads from the auxiliary reservoir, is provided with a branch 45 leading to a port in the valve housing 4 which is normally closed by the plunger 2 and a branch 46, which leads to a port in a valve housing 47 within which reeiprocates a plunger 48 connected by a link 49 to an engineers lever 50 which is fulcrumed at 51. The upward movement of this lever is limited by a stop 52. The plunger 48 is suit- 35 is connected masses ably formed to provide annular chambers 53 and 54. When plunger 48 is in the position shown in Fig. 2, air pressure pipe 46 is connected to pipe 56 by chamber 54 while pipe 55 is connected to exhaust port 57 by chamber 53. WVhen plunger 48 is in raised position, the pipe 56 is connected to exhaust port 58 by chamber 54 while pressure pipe 46 is connected to pipe 55 by chamber 53. The power of magnet 35 when energized is sufiicient to draw the lever 50 from its raised position against the stop 52 down into the .position'shown in Fig. 2. A pipe 59 connects at one end with a port in the bottom Wall of valve housing 47 and at its other end leads to a port 60 in the valve housing 4, said port being covered by the plunger 2-in lowered position. 7

According to Figs. 4, and 5, the armature 43 is suitably mounted to be swung into and out of operative position (shown in full lines in Fig. 5) by the following means. In the present embodiment, I have employed a flat plate for the armature, connecting it by rigid arms to a hub 66 which is keyed to a shaft 67 journaled in standards 68. The shaft 67 also carries an armature 69 disposed between pole pieces 70 surrounding standards 71. This apparatus is housed in a box-like housing 72 which may be constructed of any suitable non-magnetic material for this purpose. Referring now to Fig. 3, a power circuit for energizing the apparatus for moving the armature plate 43 into operative position (shown in full linesin Figs. 4 and and holding it there, includes a line 73 leading to one of a pair of spaced contacts 74, the gap between which may be closed by 'a movable contact 75. The other of said contacts 74 has connected thereto a wire 76 leading to the apparatus within the housing 72. A wire 77 leading from said housing also constitutes a part of this circuit. held in )osition to close the circuit just mentioned, y a coil 78 which is grounded at one terminal through a wire 79 and has its other terminal connected by a wire 80 to a rail 81. Rail 81 is connected by a wire 82 with one pole of a battery 83, the other pole of said battery being grounded through a wire 84. A rail 85 arranged opposite to rail 81 is grounded by a wire 86. Rails 81 and 85 which constitute a track portion. are insulated from adjoining rails 87 and 88 by means of insulating bodies 89 and 90 respectively. A ramp or cam bar 91 disposed adjacent the end of each block. for example, serves to impart a relatively small initial movement to the lever 1 referred to above.

The diagram according to 3 shows a very simple embodiment of the train control system in which a train on one block is controlled according to, whether or not Movable contact 75 is normally there is a train in the next adjoining block. Thus if the next block is clear, for example, the solenoid coil 78 is energized through the normally closed circuit including ground wire 79, wire 80, rail 81, wire 82, battery 83 and ground wire 84. This maintains the movable contact 75 in closed position, thus completing the energizing circuitwhich includes wire 73, contacts 74, contact 75. wire 76, apparatus in housing 72, and wire 77. By means of this energization, plate armature 43 is held in full line position shown in Figs. 4 and 5.

Under these conditions, let it be supposed that the lever 1 comes into engagement with one of the ramps 91 disposed at suitable intervals along the right of way. The small initial movement thereby imparted to the plunger 2 closes the port 60 in valve housing 41 and causes chamber 6 to form a by-pass between the pressure pipe 15 and a branch pipe 61, into the pipe 59, thus causing the plunger 48 to be forced upwardly to bring the lever 50 against the stop 52. This movement closes port 57 in valve housing 47 and places the branch 16 of pressure pipe 44 into communication with the pipe 55 leading to the upper end of chamber 7. thus forcing the piston 7 downwardly, since the pipe 56 has at the same time been placed in communication with exhaust port 58 to permit this action. The relatively small initial displacement of the plunger 2 will therefore be followed by a more extended movement under the action of compressed air, the contact 10 being brought down onto the contacts 11, 11 to close the energizing circuit of the primary winding 15 and field windings 19 and 20. The armature 43 being in position to be swept over by the poles 17, 17, the presence of this armature will permit the flux in the magnetic circuit to build up, and upon the breaking of this increased flux, by the passage of the poles over the end of the armature, the sudden decrease of flux will cause an electromotive force to be generated in secondary coil 36. which electromotive force drives current through winding 38, the current in said winding beingcaused to interact with the field due to windings 19 and 20 and hence closing contacts 29 and 30. This energizes the relay solenoid 25 which in turn breaks the contact at 22, 23. This action breaks the circuit which energizes coil 15, thus permitting the flux in core 16 to decrease to zero. This drop in the flux in said core tends to further increase the action of winding 38 by reason of the increased electromotive force generated in coil 36 by the drop influx. It will be understood that the decrease of magnetism in the field. surrounding the armature of the sensitive relay. is not so instantaneous as to prevent the action of said relay. The decrease is rather gradual,

depending upon the coei ficient of self-induction.in the field coils 19 and 20, and in coil 15. Thus, while the decrease of the magnetic field of core 16 tendsto increase the current induced in coil36 feeding armature 38, this armature will still be, for a short interval of time, in the vanishing field of coils 19 and 20 so that the torque exerted on armature 38 and due to the combined action of the currents induced in coils 15 and 36, attains the desired value for the desired length of time. As a result, contact 30 is closed down on contact 29, substantially instantaneously, magnet 35 being energized thereby and the lever 50 automatically returned to normal position (shown in Fig. 2). In this position, plunger 48 connects pipe 55 with exhaust port 57 and pipe 56 with pressure supply pipe 46, so that thereby, piston 7 is forced upward and contact l110-11 is-b'roken as shown in Fig. 2. The relatively slow acting brakes which operate on well known principles are therefore prevented from becoming active and the train goes on unhindered. If, on the other hand, a train is present on the right hand'block shown in Fig. 3, the rails 81 and 85 are bridged to short circuit the battery 83 by way of ground wires 84 and 86,:

thus denergizing coil 78 and releasing contact 75, which deenergizes armature 69 and permits the plate armature 43 to drop into inactive position. In the absence of an electric impulse in the secondary winding 36 and coil 38, contact 3() fails to close on contact 29 with the result that coil 35 receives no energizing current and hence the air brakes continue their operation until the train is brought to rest. In this case. in order to release the brakes before starting the train, the engineer pushes plunger 48 (Fig. 2) down by operating handle 50 downwardly, which has the effect of breaking contact 11-10-11 in the same manner as described above. If desired, I may replace the armature 43 as shown in Fig. 1, by a core 95 carrying a closed winding 96 and provided with pole pieces 97 I claim 1. In a system of the character described, an induction device, a relay adapted to be momentarily energized by said induction device, a. second relay under the control of the first mentioned relay, and means under the control of the second relay for controlling the energization of said induction device, said means including two instrumentalities. one of,whicl1 is adapted to be initially actuated to a small degree to operate the other and to be in turn fully operated by said other instrumentality.

2. In a system of the character described. an inductor comprising primary and secondary coils. a relay comprising a field winding and an oscillatable armature winding, an energizing circuit including said primary coil and said field winding, a circuit connecting said secondary coil of the inductor in series with said oscillatable armature winding, means for varying the magnetic flux in said inductor to cause said armature to oscillate, a contact movable by .the oscillation of said. armature winding, and an energizing circuit controlled by said contact.

3. In an electric system, an induction device including a core provided with primary and secondary windings, a relay electrically connected to said secondary winding, an

energizing circuit for said primary winding including a source of direct current, an electrically operated controlling device, means under the control of said relay for energizing said controlling device, and means for varying the magnetic reluctance of said core to produce momentary electromotive force in said secondary winding to operate said relay. 1

at. In a train control system, an induction device including primary and secondary windings, a relay electrically connected to said secondary winding, an electrically op erated controlling device, a circuit connection under the control of said relay for -initially energizing said controlling device and means for producing momentary electromotive force in said secondary winding to operate said relay, said controlling device, when energized, being adapted to make suitable shunt connection to said relay controlled circuit, to prolong its own energization after the deenergiz'ation of said relay.

5. The combination with a train or vehicle, of brake operating mechanism adapted when actuated to gradually become fully operative, means depending on the movement of said train or vehicle for begining the operation of said mechanism, and means for preventing the full operation of said mechanism including an electroresponsive device, an energizing circuit therefor containing a relay for opening and closing said energizing circuit, an energizing circuit for said relay including a switch, an oscillatory coil for operating said switch, a field winding coiiperatively disposed with respect to said oscillatory coil, an inductive device having secondary and primary windings respectively connected to said coil and field winding, and means depending on the presence or absence of another train or vehicle at a distance for imparting a current impulse to said inductive device.

6. In a train control system of the character described, an induction device comprising primary and secondary windings, a relay connectedup with said induction device, and an energizing circuit under control of said relay, said relay including co operating windings connected in circuit with second relay, an energizing circuit for the second relay including said contact, and an enlergizing circuit controlled by said second re ay.

8. In a system of the character described, an inductor provided with primary and secondary windings, a relay provided with a field winding and an armature winding, said armature winding and said secondary inductor winding being connected in' circuit with each other, a circuit for energizing said primary and field windings, a contact normally in circuit-closing position in said primary and field windings circuit, a normally open switch in said primary and field wind ing circuit adapted to be closed at predetermined times, a second relay and an energizing circuit therefor, a contact movable by the armature winding of the first mentioned relay to make and break the second relay energizing circuit, said second relay when energized, adapted to break said normally closed contact in said primary and field winding circuit, a shunt circuit to said second relay energizing circuit, having contacts controlled by said second relay to maintain said relay energized when said first relay breaks the contact by its movable armature, and means for varying the magnetic flux in said inductor.

9. In a system of the character described, an induction device provided with primary and secondary windings, a circuit for energizing said primary winding, means for making and breaking said circuit at predetermined times, means for varying the magnetic flux in said induction device, a relay controlled contact operated by the current induced in the secondary winding of said induction device and a second relay having its energizing circuit controlled by said relay controlled contact and including a contact for controlling the flow of current through said primary winding of said induction device.

10. In a train control system of the character described, a relay provided with a field winding and an armature winding oscillatable in the field produced by said field winding, a magnet core provided with primary and secondary windings, said primary winding being in circuit with said field winding, said secondary winding being connected in series with the oscillatable winding of said relay, a movable contact actuated by said oscillatable winding, and

means for controlling'the deenergization of the primary winding of said r lay, said means including a second relay and circuit connection controlled by said movable contact, for energizing said second relay.

11. A system of the character described, including a magnet core with pole ends spaced apart to form a magnetic gap, an armature movable into and out of position to reduce the magnetic gap in said core, aprimary Winding on said core, a secondary winding on said core, an energizing circuit for said primary Winding having a gap, a

contact normally out of gap-closing-position,

means adapted to be rendered operative by the movement of said vehicle for bringing said contactinto gap-closing position, other means including a magnet for holding the former means inoperative, an energizing circuit for the last mentioned magnet including a gap, a relay provided with a contact for closing said gap, an energizing circuit for said relay including a movable contact, and a movable winding for moving the last mentioned contact, said movable winding being connected up in series with the secondary winding on said core.

EARL P. JESSOP. 

